The University of Mary women’s basketball team rolled through its first game of the 2018-19 season with a, 113-59 victory over Yellowstone Christian College. Here’s three things we learned from the Marauders hot start.

YCC is not NSIC talent— A lot of great things happened for Rick Neumann’s crew Wednesday night. YCC is nowhere near the talent in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Coference, however, that shouldn’t take away anything from UMary’s first victory. UMary has to show they won’t have trouble with bad teams and that’s exactly what the Marauders did inside the McDowell Activity Center.

UMary has its own big three — Gabbie Bohl, Cassie Askvig and Montana State transfer Coral Gillete is a big three that shouldn’t be taken lightly in the NSIC. Bohl scored her 1,000-career point against the Centurions and finished with a game-high 22 points on 7 of 9 shooting. The junior forward also was hot from the charity stripe and made 8 of 11. Askvig was the MVP of the game in my opinion. She was all over the court. Every big play that happened, Askvig was there. The 6-foot-2 junior finished with 18 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in 24 minutes. I could watch Gillete shoot and drain 3-pointers in my free time. The 6-foot-0 sophomore is going to make a barrel of 3-pointers this season. Eighteen of her 19 points came beyond the 3-point line and make an impressive 60 percent of them. A big three has been built in Bismarck, N.D., and the NSIC must take notice.

3-point turnaround —UMary is seven seasons removed from one of its most impressive seasons from the 3-point line. The Marauders shot 36.5 percent from beyond the arc in 2012-13 but dipped below 30 percent in 2016-17. However, I could see UMary getting back to its 2012-13 form this season. The Marauders banged home 18 3-pointers against YCC and converted on 50 percent of them including 9 of 16 in the first half. There’s some great shooters on this team. I highly doubt another performance like this will happen this year but one can only hope.